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Thor: Ragnarok's Ending Explained

What Happens To New Asgard?

Asgard the realm is, quite simply, destroyed. Surtur finally gets to achieve his life goal and will presumably now just exist lording it over the scorched, fiery land. But, as we've established, that's not the real end. Asgard is now a flying city, jetting through the cosmos.

In the comics, after Ragnarök (notice the umlaut) Asgard is rebuilt on Earth just outside Oklahoma, with Thor populating it with surviving Asgardians. It stayed this way for a few years, but Secret Invasion saw it first attacked by Skrulls, then afterwards Norman Osborn destroyed it to get the foreign land off American soil (land Thor had bought using Asgardian gold). Once that whole thing was cleared, Tony Stark built Asgardia, a floating plain just above the previous site.

Something like this is probably on the cards for Thor at the end of the film - he's heading to Earth, much to Loki's worry, and presumably doesn't plan to be in the ship for too long. But that's not going to go quite to plan. As Thor and Loki discuss their plans in the mid-credits scene, a giant ship appears behind them. Quite what exactly isn't made clear, but it appears similar to Thanos' in the Avengers: Infinity War teaser, suggesting the Black Order. We already know that Thor winds up spinning through space towards the Guardians of the Galaxy from the SDCC trailer, so it seems things won't go too well for New Asagard.

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Is Hela Really Dead?

While Asgard is destroyed in the finale, it's not quite clear what happens to our villain. She appears to go down with the realm, but this is someone who was trapped away for centuries if not millennia and is, after all, the Goddess of Death - actually killing her will be tricky.

It was theorized before release that Hela was going to wind up being the MCU's version of Death, whose physical embodiment in the comics becomes the object of Thanos' affections and kicks off the entire Infinity Gauntlet fiasco. Nothing in Ragnarok says that isn't possible, but Cate Blanchett hasn't been attached to any future films and the way Hela's presented as a very single-focused villain would make that seem further unlikely. Indeed, her death needs to be permanent on a thematic level: if she does survive, then Thor sacrificed his home for nothing.

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What Happens On Sakaar?

Thor definitely leaves his mark on Sakaar, striking right at the heart of the Grandmaster's empire and sparking a revolution that ransacks the city. Korg and co. get off-world to help with the Asgardian plight, but the rest of the people who live for the Contest of Champions strike a little closer to home; the pristine upper halls become as ravaged as the junk-strewn landscapes.

As we see in the post-credits scene, The Grandmaster has been flung out of his palace, fleeing in an escape pod with a couple of women. He, naturally, tries to talk his way of it, saying to the dissidents he was important as the aggressor and declares the revolution a draw. Do they buy it? That's up to the audience to decide. Indeed, we don't actually know if Goldblum will be back in future movies or if this was a one-and-done situation. That said, The Grandmaster in the comics is certainly an intriguing character with more importance than was seen in Ragnarok and his MCU counterpart is the brother of Guardians of the Galaxy's Collector, so it would definitely be feasible.